Thread: Solvent adhesives... why don't more people use them?

For everyone's information:

ACETONE WILL NOT - REPEAT NOT - DISSOLVE ABS !!!!!

Most model kits which use Acetone as a solvent/adhesive are made from Polystyrene or a derivative. Plumbers Merchants sell drain/soil pipe adhesives for PVC rainwater goods.

Hope this helps.

Incidentally I am still looking for a solvent adhesive for ABS.

Cheers.

Update!!!

The solvent for abs is: Mek - methyl ethyl ketone

also there are some abs rainwater goods solvent/cements available from plumbers merchants - dont know how good they are.

Originally Posted by fireblademalc

For everyone's information:

ACETONE WILL NOT - REPEAT NOT - DISSOLVE ABS !!!!!

^^ Not true. Did it the other day. Took a large black ABS pipe (I know it was ABS because it said "ABS" in large white/grey letters) and ground shavings off with a dremel. Put said shavings in a jar, and poured acetone in it. The shavings melted down into a nice goopy sludge, then dried into a very hard ABS clump (many many hours later, but nonetheless, dried).

MEK works too, but so does acetone so don't rule it out. You may have tried it on PVC or something, which, in that case, it doesn't work.

Originally Posted by Big Black Turd

^^ Not true. Did it the other day. Took a large black ABS pipe (I know it was ABS because it said "ABS" in large white/grey letters) and ground shavings off with a dremel. Put said shavings in a jar, and poured acetone in it. The shavings melted down into a nice goopy sludge, then dried into a very hard ABS clump (many many hours later, but nonetheless, dried).

MEK works too, but so does acetone so don't rule it out. You may have tried it on PVC or something, which, in that case, it doesn't work.

I second this... dissolves for me.

This is a great read! May have to try this on my next project. Is there a ratio for acetone/MEK to ABS?

No. Its not like resin where you have to carefully balance resin with catalyst. Just keep putting in more mek until its totally dissolved. As the MEK evaporates, your left with the hard plastic... so you can't put in too muck MEK.

I just want to add that after reading all 35 pages of this I went to Lowes and got some MEK that was on clearance for half off. I threw in chunks of ABS from the Bybyte frame and the PC-ABS dash that I trimmed out to make room and sure enough, dissolved (albeit taking over night, large chunks at first) Anyway, kept adding plastic till I had a decent molasses like consistency. I don't know if it's because of the MEK, but this stuff tacks extremely fast. Put a few dabs in place, held for a few minutes and it's stuck. Then start slowly filling in the voids. Now I have a frame that really does feel like it's part of the dash. Only problem is, there are parts where I got a little messy and I need to sand it down. Since the frame is mating up against a fake wood trim, I need to get some modeling paint or something and try to touch up the area around the frame that I chewed up with my first attempt at using a rotary tool.